Gibbs free energies of Fe clusters can be approximated by Tolman correction to accurately model cluster nucleation and growth

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Khrabry, Alexander, Hoffenberg, Louis E. S., Kaganovich, Igor D., Barsukov, Yuri, Graves, David B.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Khrabry, Alexander
Hoffenberg, Louis E. S.
Kaganovich, Igor D.
Barsukov, Yuri
Graves, David B.
author_facet Khrabry, Alexander
Hoffenberg, Louis E. S.
Kaganovich, Igor D.
Barsukov, Yuri
Graves, David B.
contents Accurate Gibbs free energies of Fe clusters are required for predictive modeling of Fe cluster growth during condensation of a cooling vapor. We present a straightforward method of calculating free energies of cluster formation using the data provided by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We apply this method to calculate free energies of Fe clusters having from 2 to 100 atoms. The free energies are verified by comparing to an MD-simulated equilibrium cluster size distribution in a sub-saturated vapor. We show that these free energies differ significantly from those obtained with a commonly used spherical cluster approximation - which relies on a surface tension coefficient of a flat surface. The spherical cluster approximation can be improved by using a cluster size-dependent Tolman correction for the surface tension. The values for the Tolman length and effective surface tension were derived, which differ from the commonly used experimentally measured surface tension based on the potential energy. This improved approximation does not account for geometric magic number effects responsible for spikes and troughs in densities of neighbor cluster sizes. Nonetheless, it allows to model cluster formation from a cooling vapor and accurately reproduce the condensation timeline, overall shape of the cluster size distribution, average cluster size, and the distribution width. Using a constant surface tension coefficient resulted in distorted condensation dynamics and inaccurate cluster size distributions. The analytical expression for cluster nucleation rate from classical nucleation theory (CNT) was updated to account for the size-dependence of cluster surface tension.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_16693
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gibbs free energies of Fe clusters can be approximated by Tolman correction to accurately model cluster nucleation and growth
Khrabry, Alexander
Hoffenberg, Louis E. S.
Kaganovich, Igor D.
Barsukov, Yuri
Graves, David B.
Materials Science
Chemical Physics
Computational Physics
Accurate Gibbs free energies of Fe clusters are required for predictive modeling of Fe cluster growth during condensation of a cooling vapor. We present a straightforward method of calculating free energies of cluster formation using the data provided by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We apply this method to calculate free energies of Fe clusters having from 2 to 100 atoms. The free energies are verified by comparing to an MD-simulated equilibrium cluster size distribution in a sub-saturated vapor. We show that these free energies differ significantly from those obtained with a commonly used spherical cluster approximation - which relies on a surface tension coefficient of a flat surface. The spherical cluster approximation can be improved by using a cluster size-dependent Tolman correction for the surface tension. The values for the Tolman length and effective surface tension were derived, which differ from the commonly used experimentally measured surface tension based on the potential energy. This improved approximation does not account for geometric magic number effects responsible for spikes and troughs in densities of neighbor cluster sizes. Nonetheless, it allows to model cluster formation from a cooling vapor and accurately reproduce the condensation timeline, overall shape of the cluster size distribution, average cluster size, and the distribution width. Using a constant surface tension coefficient resulted in distorted condensation dynamics and inaccurate cluster size distributions. The analytical expression for cluster nucleation rate from classical nucleation theory (CNT) was updated to account for the size-dependence of cluster surface tension.
title Gibbs free energies of Fe clusters can be approximated by Tolman correction to accurately model cluster nucleation and growth
topic Materials Science
Chemical Physics
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.16693